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ANKARA: Wilson: US stance will not change

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  • ANKARA: Wilson: US stance will not change

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    March 27 2007

    Wilson: US stance will not change


    While Turkish officials who gathered in Washington to attend a
    conference expressed hope that the Armenian genocide resolution
    pending in the US Congress would not pass, the US ambassador showed
    support.

    "Everything has been said already, God willing, the resolution won't
    pass," said Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun, who
    attended a reception at the Turkish Embassy in Washington prior to
    the opening of the annual conference on US-Turkish relations
    organized by various business associations led by American-Turkish
    Council's (ATC) to promote commercial and cultural relations between
    the two countries.

    "We don't want this resolution to pass," said Ross Wilson who is the
    US ambassador to Turkey, attending the reception in Washington,
    adding that the US administration would not change its stance no
    matter how the US Congress acted on the resolution.

    US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert
    Gates, with a letter sent to senior members of Congress, indicated
    the damage that Turkish-US ties could suffer if the pending
    resolution on Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman
    Turks was passed.

    The resolution was presented to the US House of Representatives
    earlier this year though the timing of the vote has yet to be
    decided. Turkey has warned that passage of the resolution would harm
    strategic relations with the United States and undermine cooperation
    in key regions across the world, in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

    Meanwhile, Rýfat Hisarcýklýoðlu, president of the Turkish Union of
    Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), commented that Americans
    were wise and would not meddle with an issue that should be in the
    hands of historians.

    Message from Bush

    The US and Turkey share mutual interests and improve global wealth
    together has expressed US President George W. Bush, in a message sent
    yesterday for the opening of the ATC conference. He also expressed
    gratitude for the Turkish-Americans' contribution to the American
    culture.
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